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Monday, September 17, 2012

DNA is Coming My Way!

One of the most interesting subtopics in genealogy is that of DNA, the ability to prove (or disprove) your ancestry based on your genes. DNA can't necessarily prove who your ancestors were but it can give you a good look at what region of the world your ancestors come from. Traditional DNA tests such a Y-Chromosome testing for men and Mitochondrial testing for men and women have been around for quite awhile. In the past year or so autosomal DNA testing for genealogy has started.

I have been an active amateur follower of DNA stories in the news. I am no expert but I try to keep up with the latest changes and happenings. I have harbored a secret desire to get my genealogy tested for a long time.

I'm not a person to get to overly excited about anything (passionate, yes; excited, no) but I admit I am very excited at the moment. I know that a DNA kit is on its way to my house. In just a few days (I hope!) I will receive a DNA kit from AncestryDNA.

I'm going to take you on the journey with me. This will be my first time exploring my DNA and looking in-depth at a DNA test. I'm going to share my findings with you and we'll learn to interpret the test together. You probably be able to give me some pointers!

I can't wait! I wonder if I will be in for any surprises!

Full disclosure: AncestryDNA is proving the kit to me free of charge so that I can evaluate the product. It will in no way impact my opinion or assessment of the experience. I would be equally happy to assess the products from FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe.

15 comments:

My cousin in NE was 25 when he did his first DNA test through National Geographic who only do y_DNA-12 markers. He celebrated his 30th birthday this year. A year or so later, he moved his results from NatGeo to FTDNA (Family Tree DNA) and sent me an email with a discount prices for their tests. I could get y-DNA-37 plus mt-DNA-Plus (HVR1 + HVR2) for the same price as the previous price of y-DNA-37 and have since ordered tests whenever they have discount prices. I eventually upgraded to y-DNA-67 + mt-DNA-FGS (full genealogical sequence; they have a new name for this test) so it hasn't been cheap. Two other cousins, descendants from Samuel/John & James, reportedly sons of Ichabod Whidden, of Portsmouth, NH ca 1662, descended from John while Jesse & I are each descendants of Samuel have been proven to be descendants of the same ancestor. My fears were that I would not be a match as suspected my Mom got pregnant and hoodwinked my Dad into marrying her but the DNA put the lie to that. However I didn't have a moment of relief experience; almost disappointment but more accurately an empty feeling due to the fact my Dad repeatedly took me to town from the farm and left me sitting in the pickup truck for hours on end while he drank with his buddies in the local beer parlour. What I experienced is repeated mini-abandonments from age 8 - 12 years and though the farm was only 3 miles away and we often walked the distance, it never occurred to me to just walk home and leave him wondering where I disappeared to. To finish this part of the story, I read the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross book about grief and it helped but something was still missing. Susan Anderson has written four books on abandonment and explain why abandonment recovery is different than grief from a death: you are not part of a community who all suffer the grief, in my case my sisters didn't experience the abandonment and don't really relate to it, you have a need for the love of your Dad which never gets fulfilled and many other issues. Many years later, I finally experienced the kind of trust I wish I'd gotten from my Dad which went a long way to helping.

My cousin has upgraded to y-DNA-110 and done various SMP tests and eventually also did mt-DNA through 23andme. Through his tests, my y-DNA haplogroup is R1b1a2a1a1b4. My mt-DNA haplogroup is U6a3a1. The only matches for both are the four cousins with documented genealogy and family lore that they came from Portsmouth, England to Portsmouth, NH and no close matches with mt-DNA so waiting for more people to be tested. The thing to do is upload results from your test to ysearch.org and mitosearch.org where people can upload results from different testing companies to see if they have matches. Also, each haplogroup for y-DNA and mt-DNA will have projects which you can join to see if you have matches within the R1b1 or U6a3 groups.

I eventually ordered Family Finder testing which uses autosomal DNA testing but the results there require many more tests and more people being tested having well developed traditional genealogies as many being tested cannot prove any connection even if DNA says you likely have one. Without a traditional genealogy, DNA results are just a bunch of numbers.

At this point we have been able to conclude that Whidden/Whitten from NH/1662 and Whidden/Whiddon from about 1635/VA to FL do not seem to be related via DNA testing.

FTDNA warns that there is a 2 - 5% chance of a "non-paternal event" meaning a previously unknown adoption, parent is not who a traditional genealogy says it was, etc. I have two experiences with this: my wife's eldest sister was married to a man with Middle Eastern background from Newfoundland and had grown up with a female "cousin" who was close to the family. On her deathbed, his Mother confessed the cousin wasn't a cousin at all but a half-sister of a man she intended to marry but he went off to war and never returned and she married another man having a large family. Y-DNA would not have helped as they shared the same mother and likely testing a male descendant from the man's family would be hard to do. The Family Finder test might have helped as the expected cousins on the male side would not have matched.

In another case, a related family from 1700 NH & Nova Scotia lived in Cornwallis, NS had a Whidden dau. who married a Rev. Hugh Graham who was minister in Cornwallis at one time but married Elizabeth Whidden and moved to Musquodoboit and had a large family with two elder sons. One of the sons got a neighbouring dau. pregnant when she was 15-years old, she had a son when 16 and her uncle raised the boy with his family name. When modern day descendants tried to trace the family tree, they came to a dead end at this level in the genealogy and suspected some like this might have happened. FF results proved their suspicions and they show up as cousins in my FF results through the Whidden connection. They provided me with some of the seven books that documents the trail from New England to Nova Scotia.

My paternal line is Whidden and Glencross; maternal line is Jarvinen and Syrjala both directly from Finland. Jarvinen is the Finnish equivalent to Smith and Brown. To complicate it, family lore said the female line was Syrjanen for many years but recently my uncle checked his birth certificate and discovered his Mother's name was Maria Syrjala; fortunately Emil Syrjanen had married Maria's sister, Annie Syrjala so the research I did on that family wasn't a waste.

I'm looking forward very much to following your journey. I've been reading posts by Mike Maglio and trying to learn Y-chromosome, mitochondrial, and autosomal. Within our family we may have several occasions to get DNA tested very soon. It is indeed exciting. Thanks!

Keep us posted. I did the first test on Ancestry and was so excited! Rather dissappointed with the VAGUE results an STILL usure how to comprehend it all. I will only go with Ancestry again so my results will be in the same place and won't have to worry about combining results with other companies to cause me even more stress. I am going TO WAIT UNTIL FEMALES CAN BE TESTED ON THE PATERNAL SIDE WITHOUT ASKING A MALE TO HELP!

The FTDNA Family Finder and it's equivalent at other companies is the closest females can get to paternal testing without asking a male to be tested because paternal testing is based on the y chromosome, which females don't have. Males have both y and mt chromosomes so can have both tests, though.

Family Finder allows you to see across the whole range of ancestors back to five and six/seven generations, both male and female.

I am looking forward to this DNA journey with you. I was tested through FTDNA and have done the mtDNA plus, Family Finder, and my brother did the YDNA tests.Using the YDNA test I was able to verify the story my father told us children about who his biological father was. My father's family must have told him and apparently he knew his father well. I am working on understanding the tests results and enjoying my new found hobby.

The Mother's deathbed confession: the father of her first dau. died in the war.

Recommendations for first time orders of DNA tests:

1) y-DNA-12 & y-DNA-25 don't produce enough markers to provide a good match so should be avoided by first-time DNA testers; get the y-DNA-37 test. See the results for the FTDNA y-DNA for NH/NS Whiddens to see the info yielded by this test. y-DNA-67 and y-DNA-110 don't provide much helpful additional info.

2) second choice for a test is Family Finder test as you will see results from both male and female ancestors PLUS all ancestors back to five/six possibly seven generations on both paternal female and maternal male lines. Many matching testers won't have a well developed genealogy so won't be able to confirm the connection. Encourage them to do the research.

3) third choice is mt-DNA-PLUS (HVR1 + HVR2) is better than just the mt-DNA (only HVR1) because you can almost resolve the haplogroup to four characters (mine is U6a3) but mt-DNA-fullsequence is required to confirm resolution to U6a3 and U6a3a1.

4) take advantage of ysearch.org, mitosearch.org and GenBank, y and mt haplogroup projects to see possible matches.

I was excited by a recent check of mtDNA FGS results to find I had an exact match. However, like a previous close match, my email was not responded to. Again, the possibility is the submitter may have passed away. This brings up a troubling situation, where DNA matches with deceased matches are total dead ends. A suggestion is everyone who submits DNA tests needs to contact a trusted survivor who will get access to the results and can respond to followup contacts and can provide any genealogical info to help make a connection. This is very important as otherwise DNA looking for a genealogical connection will simply be a waste of time as submitters pass away.